My attempts to understand the event we call perception started off several years ago and this is what I now ask myself:

1.) What can we learn from people who hear their own thoughts as alien voices and in response to non-verbal environmental sounds are able to generate the perception of an external voice ''that retain certain acoustic features that were present in the original signal'' ?

2.) Are we only able to use covert speech and generate the perception of an external voice ''that retain certain acoustic features that were present in the original signal'' in response to non-verbal environmental sounds ?

3.) Are people able to hear the sensory consequence of covert speech in integration with what they were able to select with a corresponding top-down sensory expectation ?

4.) Can the gestures you are about to produce during covert speech when you are able to hear the sensory consequence of covert speech like the gestures you intend to produce during overt speech determine what you expect to hear and can a top-down sensory expectation like this be used to select all features matching the sensory consequence you are about to produce ?

5.) Why do people lose the ability to generate an act of will with which they are able to consciously control covert speech ?

6.) Do people lose the ability to control covert speech and hear their own thoughts as alien voices because they are forced to divide their attention between two similar tasks ?

7.) Will not what you are able to select, when you are trying to hear the voice you are about to produce, automatically correspond to some features matching the sensory consequence you are about to produce and can not the attention you devote to a competing task due to a similarity more effectively suppress the ability control how you respond ?

8.) Can two in some way similar tasks compete with each other more than two different tasks because the available attention capacity is set (limited) as if you were to perform only one task ?

9.) Why am I the only one who uses a well known experience many people share in an attempt to make it easier to understand the lack of voluntary control ?

10.) Can the lost ability to generate an act of will with which you are able to consciously control covert speech with regards to a certain goal be as essential to our ability to restore and better distinguish a verbal message as it can be devastating to people with an integration disorder referred to as schizophrenia ?

11.) Can what you are able to attend when you are trying to hear the voice you are about to produce more or less suppress the ability to control covert speech and do people who more or less lose the ability to control covert speech more or less lose the ability to inhibit a verbal response ?

12.) Can what you are able to attend when you are trying to hear the voice you are about to produce be more demanding when you get a better match between a corresponding top-down sensory expectation and bottom-up sensory signals ?

13.) Is it harder to inhibit a verbal response when you get a better match between a corresponding top-down sensory expectation and bottom-up sensory signals and will this result in a tendency to produce the most equivalent sensory consequence you are able to produce ?

14.) Can bottom-up sensory signals affect the outcome of competition between response tendencies and will this result in a tendency to produce the most equivalent sensory consequence you are able to produce ?

15.) Are you able to integrate all features matching the sensory consequence you are about to produce when bottom-up sensory signals affect the outcome of competition between response tendencies and will this generate the informative event we call perception in response to a more or less distorted verbal message ?

16.) Can the lost ability to inhibit a verbal response serve the purpose of not letting an act of will interfere with the ability to select the gestures you need to use in response to a verbal message and will the lost ability to choose how you respond result in that you find it much harder to disregard the context you are exposed to and experience ?

17.) Can covert speech with its sensory consequence heard in integration with all features matching a corresponding top-down sensory expectation, thanks to a tendency to produce a rather equivalent sensory consequence, be used to distinguish a verbal message while a sensitivity to the context you are exposed to and experience makes it possible to restore a more or less distorted verbal message ?

18.) Are stimuli to which you make the same response categorized when you hear the sensory consequence of a specific gesture in integration with all features matching a corresponding top-down sensory expectation (what you are able to hear more subjectively will in response to different stimuli sound alike) and can a sensitivity to the context you are exposed to and experience make it possible to categorize (and learn how to categorize) what you are able to distinguish in response to acoustically highly variable speech sounds ?

19.) Are people able to restore and better distinguish a verbal message when they lack the ability to inhibit a verbal response and with a short delay hear the sensory consequence of covert speech in integration with what they were able to select with a corresponding top-down sensory expectation ?

20.) Was Alvin M. Liberman more than 50 years ago correct in his assumption that "the articulatory movements and their sensory effects mediate between the acoustic stimulus and the event we call perception" ?

21.) Are you able to reveal a verbal illusion when you expect to hear the sensory consequence you are about to produce and all features matching what you expect to hear can be taken out of their peripheral existence without generating a match between a top-down sensory expectation and bottom-up sensory signals ?

22.) Will the ability to reveal a verbal illusion (a mismatch) result in that you lack the motivation to execute and are able to inhibit a verbal response ?

23.) Are you able to integrate all features matching the sensory consequence you are about to produce when bottom-up sensory signals affect the outcome of competition between response tendencies and will this generate the informative event we call perception in response to auditory, visual, somatosensory, olfactory, and gustatory stimuli ?

Stefan Andersson

Linguistic Field(s):
Cognitive Science

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